Related

Europeans often grumble that the European Union is run by anonymous
apparatchiks. Surely they're not referring to Prince Emanuele Filiberto of
Savoy, grandson of Italy's last King, who is campaigning for this week's
European Parliament elections. Or to Rickard Falkvinge, the founder of
Sweden's Pirate Party, whose campaign rallying cry is for free file-sharing
over the Internet. Or to Elena Basescu, a.k.a. Romania's Paris Hilton  the
flashy It girl, who happens to be the daughter of the Romanian President,
also wants to become an MEP.

With candidates like these, it's easy to forget that the European Parliament
shapes Europe's policies on vital issues like climate change, banking rules
and immigration law. Yet when elections roll around every five years, the august body can feel like a free-for-all for fringes, freaks
and fanatics. (See pictures of how climate change is affecting Europe.)

Between June 4 and 7, some 375 million Europeans will be entitled to cast
votes to elect a new, 736-member Parliament. However, a survey earlier
this year found that only 34% of eligible voters are likely to do so. This
apathy spurs the rise of the mavericks: since most Europeans still do not
know who their MEPs are or what they do, they use their votes instead to
punish incumbents. (Read "Why So Few Care About the European Parliament Elections.")

"Voters think the stakes are lower than in national elections  or, at any
rate, less clear," says Hugo Brady of the Center for European Reform think
tank. "Moreover, the Parliament can often seem distant because few voters
know what it actually does. And even if they do, the areas where the
Parliament exercises most influence seem technical and dull."

Yet a seat in the Brussels body still appears strangely attractive to a
raft of minor celebrities. Among the candidates hoping to be elected or re-elected are former Czech astronaut Vladimir Remek; Finland's
four-time winner of the Paris-Dakar rally, Ari Vatanen; Bulgarian Taekwondo
champion and nightclub impresario Slavi Binev; and Paul Georg Maria Joseph
Dominikus von Habsburg, the grandson of the last Austro-Hungarian emperor.
Also making a bid is Gigi Becali, the owner of Romania's Steaua Bucharest
soccer club, who is facing kidnapping charges.

However, the fringes also contain more disruptive elements. These range from
the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP), which campaigns to pull Britain out of
the E.U., to France's Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, a comedian of Cameroonian
descent whose declared primary aim is "wiping out Zionism" in the world. The
only pan-European party, with 600 affiliated candidates standing across the
E.U., is the fiercely Euroskeptic Libertas, led by Irish millionaire Declan
Ganley. (Read "How One Man Plans to Sink the European Union.")

These groups could make a strong impact in the elections. UKIP won just 2%
of the vote and no seats in the 2005 British general election, but some
opinion polls currently put the party ahead of the ruling Labour Party,
owing largely to voter disgust over the parliamentary-expenses scandal in
London. In the Netherlands,
the anti-Islamic Geert Wilders could see his Freedom Party overtake the
Christian Democrats of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. (Read "Dutch Shrug for Anti-Muslim Film.")

But if the mainstream parties are outflanked, they often have themselves to
blame. In many countries, the European Parliament is seen as a Siberia for
politicians whose day is done in the national arena  hence the decision
by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to send his glamorous justice minister
Rachida Dati to the assembly because of her high-handed management style and the
gossip surrounding her clothes and private life. (See pictures of Sarkozy in the U.K.)

Even when big names top the party lists, they are sometimes figureheads who
have no intention of serving out their terms. Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi, for example, is unlikely to take up his seat if, expected, he is elected  even if Brussels might be a sanctuary of sorts
from his major woman problems of late. (Read: "Berlusconi and the Girl: No Spice, Thank You.")

The mainstream parties are also victims of the technical and consensual
nature of the E.U. itself. Voters are turned off by the process-heavy,
nonadversarial way in which the Parliament operates: there is little
difference among the policies proposed by the three biggest groups, the
conservatives, liberals and socialists. In the current downturn, they are
all seen as having fallen asleep at the wheel while the economy went sour.

"This election is very difficult for mainstream parties," says Antonio
Missiroli, director of studies at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre
(EPC). "It is complicated to make a case for Europe at this moment. And
during the economic crisis, voters feel that someone has to be blamed,
whether it is Europe or capitalism in general."

So these elections are largely an outlet for European voters to express
their frustration with the status quo. The eccentrics and extremists may
offer implausible E.U. policies, but most European governments prefer voters
to vent their anger at the European elections rather than at the national
polls. The danger is that this mood will shape the Parliament just when a
new generation of politicians is needed to pull Europe out of its apathetic
slump.